A Book for Thinkers!: To Improve Family Relations with Decision Making Methods in a Changing World!

By James Elander

The idea for this book came to the author when he was talking with some men and women who had been looking at and thinking about how to better understand some of today’s problems. They said they would appreciate and enjoy activities to help them understand new issues and arrive at better and valid conclusions, but they added to please keep it simple.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669858546

James Elander

Jim Elander grew up in St. Charles, Illinois about 35 miles west of Chicago. It was an unusual town of about 3,500 people, but with several millionaires, who really helped the poor to survive the depression. The school system was exceptional and forward-thinking, and prepared students for a better future. After World War II, Jim was discharged from the Navy and elected to go to college, which was very wise. He attended 4 colleges, all on scholarship and/or science programs. He was, later on, elected president of two science and math professional organizations, School Science and Math Association, and the Chicago Math Club. After beginning his teaching at a small school in Mazon Illinois, Jim accepted a position in the noted high School, Oak Park and River Forest High School, teaching Math and eventually became the chair of the Math Department. In 1980, he retired from Oak Park and took a position at North Central College, Naperville, Illinois. For another 10 years, Jim served as Assistant Professor and retired again in 1990 to Missoula, Montana. He now lives in Naples, Florida.

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Copyright © 2023 by James Elander.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 03/03/2023

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Objectives

This book tries to help people learn to make better personal and family decisions, via small group discussions, that will lead to improved understandings and better conclusions. The need for conclusions resulted from methods that started in Athens over 2500 years ago in order to aid the first democracy and to improve decision making. It was the first form of a democratic government. We are still trying to improve, but with different tools like computers, TV, etc.

The validity or invalidity of people’s conclusions are often based on the information they read or hear, as in advertising, newspapers, TV, and who said it or reported it. Many times, the explanations are incomplete and news reports lead to incomplete or even false conclusions! When all participate, and all discuss possible results or viewpoints, better conclusions by families will result. This book will help all, who read it, to make better future decisions, plus it will improve group or family relationships. To make it even more interesting, bits of related history are added.

Prologue: The Origins of the Ideas

The idea for this book came to the author when he was talking with some men and women who had been looking at and thinking about how to better understand some of today’s problems. They said they would appreciate and enjoy activities to help them understand new issues and arrive at better and valid conclusions, but they added to please keep it simple. To create some interesting discussion, I would suggest and urge the father and mother or adults read at least the first 20 pages of Neil Postman’s book, TECHNOPOLY.

I said I would keep it simple via a short HOW and WHY book with bits of related history. This makes the topics more interesting and up to date in the current world applying to local and meaningful situations. The activity types are simplified so that all ages can understand, but remember that asking questions is always the key to understanding. Discussions, which are beneficial for not only the adults but for young and old, will help to improve thinking and decision making ability. Getting better understanding is always important to ensure we are making valid decisions. The method will start with simple cases and progress to more complicated problems that you might run into every day. Simple cases or methods will lead you to complicated ones with much better understanding.

We will start by arriving at some conclusions which are from the basic counting number activities. Some will be valid and some invalid.

All of us have encountered the first 10 counting numbers from math, or what are called the basic set of digits. We probably use them more than any other set of numbers. So let us start with that set, the 1-10 whole numbers. A scientific calculator is suggested to help you make some conclusions, plus save a lot of time. In these cases, a general statement is the objective. The idea is for the individual to make a general statement or conclusion from a source which may or may not be valid or true, relative to the general case. The method leading to discussions is the family’s or the group’s responsibility, then evaluate as to a general truth or interpretation. Suggestion: one night per week called a family night.

Basic Counting

Digital Activity 1: Which integers or counting numbers are divisible by 1? Conclusion: All of this set of numbers are divisible by 1.

Digital Activity 2: Select about 10 integers from 1 to 500 that are divisible by 2 and write a conclusion.

Digital Activity 3: Which of these are divisible by 3: a)12        b)27        c)456?

Now, take each of these numbers, and add up the sum of the digits. You will get:

a) 1 + 2 = 3

b) 2 + 7 = 9

c) 4 + 5 + 6